The Great Derangement

By Amitav Ghosh

This book describes the Great Derangement - the reason we keep doing silly, dangerous things, like building on vulnerable coasts and floodplains. We simply think it couldn't - wouldn't - happen to us. In this, Ghosh says, we are deranged. It's an interesting sociological exploration of our attitude to climate change, with Mumbai as a case study of the impact of colonial legacy. The Great Derangement is at times a little over intellectual, but I enjoyed the analysis of coincidence and risk in novels and parallels with our attitudes towards climate disasters. Overall, this short book is interesting and contains some compelling ideas.